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Joseph Rotblat

Joseph Rotblat Quotes

Physicist

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Famous Joseph Rotblat Quotes

“The decision to use the atom bomb on Japanese cities, and the consequent buildup of enormous nuclear arsenals, was made by governments, on the basis of political and military perceptions.”

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Book:A Quest for Global Peace: Rotblat and Ikeda on War, Ethics and the Nuclear Threat
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“All nuclear weapon states should now recognize that this is so, and declare - in Treaty form - that they will never be the first to use nuclear weapons. This would open the way to the gradual, mutual reduction of nuclear arsenals, down to zero.”

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Book:A Quest for Global Peace: Rotblat and Ikeda on War, Ethics and the Nuclear Threat
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“Let me remind you that nuclear disarmament is not just an ardent desire of the people, as expressed in many resolutions of the United Nations. It is a legal commitment by the five official nuclear states, entered into when they signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.”

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Book:A Quest for Global Peace: Rotblat and Ikeda on War, Ethics and the Nuclear Threat
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“The chief task was to stop the arms race before it brought utter disaster. However, after the collapse of communism and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, any rationale for having nuclear weapons disappeared.”

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Book:A Quest for Global Peace: Rotblat and Ikeda on War, Ethics and the Nuclear Threat
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“I have to bring to your notice a terrifying reality: with the development of nuclear weapons Man has acquired, for the first time in history, the technical means to destroy the whole of civilization in a single act.”

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Book:A Quest for Global Peace: Rotblat and Ikeda on War, Ethics and the Nuclear Threat
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“If the militarily most powerful and least threatened states need nuclear weapons for their security, how can one deny such security to countries that are truly insecure? The present nuclear policy is a recipe for proliferation. It is a policy for disaster.”

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Book:A Quest for Global Peace: Rotblat and Ikeda on War, Ethics and the Nuclear Threat
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“We are told that the possession of nuclear weapons - in some cases even the testing of these weapons - is essential for national security. But this argument can be made by other countries as well.”

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Book:A Quest for Global Peace: Rotblat and Ikeda on War, Ethics and the Nuclear Threat
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“Long before the terrifying potential of the arms race was recognized, there was a widespread instinctive abhorrence of nuclear weapons, and a strong desire to get rid of them.”

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Book:A Quest for Global Peace: Rotblat and Ikeda on War, Ethics and the Nuclear Threat
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“But scientists on both sides of the iron curtain played a very significant role in maintaining the momentum of the nuclear arms race throughout the four decades of the Cold War.”

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Book:A Quest for Global Peace: Rotblat and Ikeda on War, Ethics and the Nuclear Threat
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“So I ask the nuclear powers to abandon the out-of-date thinking of the Cold War period and take a fresh look. Above all, I appeal to them to bear in mind the long-term threat that nuclear weapons pose to humankind and to begin action towards their elimination.”

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Book:A Quest for Global Peace: Rotblat and Ikeda on War, Ethics and the Nuclear Threat
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